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June 25, 2008

Incumbent Roll Will Seek at-Large School Board Seat

by Sam Savage

By John Hill

LINCOLN -- School Committee Chairwoman Mary Anne Roll will be seeking a second four-year term on the School Committee this fall, but as a town-wide candidate, not as the District 4-Albion representative, as she did in 2004.

Roll said she and her husband, David, may, over the next four years, move out of their 11 Lord Foxx Run house to a smaller house in the town and if she were elected to at-large seat, the move would not force her to step down from the committee if the new house were outside District 4. Such a move is not certain, she said, but she said she wanted to keep her options open.

Current at-large committee member and committee Vice Chairwoman Elizabeth Black Robson, who lives in District 4 and whose children have gone though the elementary school grades there, will run for Roll's District 4 seat.

"Betty and I had talked about this," Roll said. "She lives in District 4, her parent contacts are there."

Besides chairing the committee since Jeffrey Weiss stepped down two years ago, Roll has also served on the district's Wellness Committee and the Budget Subcommittee. She is a member of the School Committee's negotiations team and represents the School Committee on the town's Capital Improvement Committee.

Previously, she worked on the Lincoln Middle School Building Committee and the high school's Community Resources for Learning Committee as part of the effort to prepare for the March 2008 visit to the school by an accreditation committee from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

"The most important responsibility that a community has in securing its future is the education of its children," Roll said. "I have been proud to be a member of a School Committee that takes this responsibility seriously and look forward to the opportunity to continue building on the good work that has been accomplished over the past four years."

Roll was unopposed when she ran for the District 4 seat on the committee in 2004. A resident of Lincoln for 22 years, Roll is married to David Roll and has two adult children. She is a former teacher, having taught for 13 years in grades seven through 12 in schools in Buffalo; N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; and St. Louis, Mo.

She works as director of volunteer services for the Cumberland school department. She received a bachelor's degree in education from Medaille College in Buffalo, N.Y., and a master's degree in social studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana.